ShareThisNORMAN, Okla. - Josh Heupel's dedication to film study is so legendary that stories have grown up around it.
Some are true, like the one about him watching film for seven hours with Mike Leach when he came to Oklahoma on his recruiting visit.
Others are false, like the rumor about how the first thing he did after being hired as a Sooner assistant a few years back was watch film.
Yet for all the film he's watched and all the snaps he's studied, Heupel has never hit the rewind button on the game that defined his legacy and launched his career. He has never watched OU's victory against Florida State in the 2000 national championship game.
"You see highlights every once in awhile ...," Heupel said, "but for the most part, you don't really get too caught up in it."
But as OU and Florida State prepare to meet for the first time since that title game, reminders of that January night in Miami are everywhere. Fans reminisce about it. Media refer to it. That championship team even had a reunion this past weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the title.
No Sooner was more synonymous with that title than Heupel.
He was the blond-haired, steely-eyed face of everything that season signified. The change from a run-heavy offense to a pass-happy one. The dawn of the Stoops era. The return to Sooner glory.
Heupel was the most unlikely of protagonists.
From faraway Aberdeen, S.D., he went to Weber State in even farther away Ogden, Utah, where he redshirted, then shredded his knee. He eventually transferred to Snow Junior College in Ephraim, Utah, which if you're keeping score at home might just be the farthest of far away places.
A tape of Heupel made it from there to Norman, where it landed on Leach's desk. Then OU's newly minted offensive coordinator, Leach thought he might have his first Sooner quarterback on his hands.
No doubt the seven hours that Heupel was willing to spend with him watching film cemented the deal.
Even though Leach would leave after only a year, the quarterback he discovered led the Sooners to a championship.
"It was a unique time in this program coming off the down time that we'd had," Heupel said. "There was a certain sense of energy that came with that.
"I think that's a favorite time for a lot of fans."
He raised an eyebrow a bit.
"Certainly having played at that time," he said, "it's one of my favorite times, too."
But it wasn't the final chapter of his Sooner legacy. Not even close.
After a wrist injury led to a couple unsuccessful years in professional football, Heupel started coaching. Not surprisingly, his first gig was at OU. He was a graduate assistant for two years, then after a year coaching tight ends at Arizona, he returned to OU as the quarterbacks coach.
His impact on the program in the five years since has been significant.
In 2006, Paul Thompson, who'd switched from quarterback to receiver, learned a day before the start of fall camp that Rhett Bomar had been dismissed and that the Sooners needed him to be the starting quarterback. Thompson led the Sooners to a Big 12 title and the Fiesta Bowl.
In 2007, Sam Bradford was named the starter after a lengthy competition with Keith Nichol and Joey Halzle. The redshirt freshman led the Sooners to another conference title and another Fiesta Bowl while setting an NCAA freshman record with 36 touchdown passes.
A Heisman Trophy season for Bradford would follow.
Then last season when Bradford went down, Landry Jones was called upon. The redshirt freshman rallied an injury-depleted team to an 8-5 record and led the nation in touchdown passes by a freshman.
Thompson, Bradford, Jones - Heupel pupils all.
Jones still has more to learn from Heupel, evident from his up-and-down performance Saturday in the Sooners' opener, but it appears that the sophomore signal call couldn't be in better hands.
"He's a great leader of his quarterbacks," Sooner defensive coordinator Brent Venables said of Heupel. "He's got a great demeanor about him, great disposition, and his players emulate that and are a reflection on him."
Venables is reminded of the season that Bradford played scout team quarterback against his defense. He thought the kid was quiet, didn't quite have the moxie that he'd need to be a starting quarterback.
In truth, Bradford just ended up being like Heupel. Reserved. Composed. Focused.
The coach molded the kid into a superstar.
"He understands that in order to play well ... there's an investment," Venables said of Heupel. "There's a process to it, and you can't cheat the process.
"Josh is the classic example of that. He is a self-made guy. He's a believer in that. That's not something he learned out of a manual."
Which brings us back to that 2000 national title.
Heupel may not sit around watching film of that game, but the lessons of that night and that season play in his mind all the time. The work that was required. The leadership that was needed. The focus that was mandatory.
"There are a lot of things that you take away from it," Heupel said.
These are the building blocks of a Sooner legacy that is far from over.
(Contact Jenni Carlson at jcarlson(at)opubco.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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